


One Timeline Away (Handplates+MercyPlates)

by CloudDreamer



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Asster, Child Abuse, Evil Science, Handplates, Mercyplates, Suffering, Timeline Shenangins, Violence, gaster is a shit, large amounts of child murder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-09-27 19:39:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10043042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudDreamer/pseuds/CloudDreamer
Summary: Inspired by the comic Handplates by zarla-s.tumblr.com, this is my take on what would happen if a timeline where Gaster chose Mercy and a timeline where Gaster chose Fight intersected. This is set when they are  arguing over Papyrus healing Gaster.THIS CONTENT WILL CONTAIN IMPLIED ABUSE.





	1. Chapter 1

The lights went out. He was gone for the day. Him and his brother were alone.

 

Well. His brother was still not speaking to him after... what happened. He preferred not to think about it. He did not like thinking that his brother would do such a thing. That somehow anyone-- yes, even _him_ \-- deserved that. He was scared of his brother sometimes.

 

He liked not to think about that either.

 

It was hard to sleep without his brother. That was something he had learned only recently. The nightmares were scary enough when they could face them together, but now? Now, every time he fell asleep, the feeling of dust scattering only grew stronger. When he couldn't breathe from all the fear, he had no one to glow with. He'd tried _him_ \-- that was how desperate he had gotten. He knew reaching for his hand only brought pain, but he needed something. Anything. This recent change was so hard.

 

 Recently being relative. He did not have a very good grasp of time, if he was being honest. He knew that each day ended when the lights went out and it started when they came on, but he didn't know why. He wondered sometimes. _He_ called him stupid sometimes. Not his brother-- no, never him. But _he_ would. When _he_ poked and prodded around his body, doing what he called 'experiments,' and he had asked a question, he would laugh. The laughter was as bad as the hammers, chipping, chipping away at his bones and his soul. Maybe worse.

 

He'd say things like "1-S is much smarter than you are without even trying, how interesting."

 

He tried to stay positive for his brother, but it was hard. He wasn't stupid! He was good at puzzles, like his puzzle cube. He'd used the puzzle cube as evidence to his brother... but he had still not believed him. It was not fair. Nothing was fair. What even was fair? Had they ever even seen fair? No... that was wrong. He knew what fair was. Fair was when he was safe with his brother. He was not stupid. No matter what  _he_ believed.

 

_Then why isn't your brother talking to you, 2-P?_

❄︎♒︎♏︎■︎ ⬥︎♒︎⍓︎ ♓︎⬧︎■︎

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: Apparently a ton of writing that I'd done for this chapter just vanished? I'm not sure how that happened... so frustrating!


	2. Chapter 1.5 Handplates Papyrus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glitch shenanigans happened so I'm rewriting this bit.

No matter what he did to them, the two of them always ended up working out their differences. That always happened. That was always the result. It was like a puzzle. He was good at puzzles. He just needed... he needed to figure out the solution. He would keep telling himself that and maybe if he kept telling himself it would be okay, it would be. That was how it worked. 

Wasn't it? 

He did not like questions without answers. They made him feel even more alone than he already was. Without brother by his side... it was almost as if _he_ won. Almost like this was what _he_ had wanted from the start-- proving a point about how mercy had consequences. It wasn't like he didn't already know that. He knew very well the consequences of trying again and again to reach out. Sometimes his brother thought he was stupid for offering mercy. He knew that, no matter what his brother would say to deny it. It was in the gesture of his shoulders and the faint flicker in his singular eye.

Wasn't it?

He didn't know what to do without him. Mercy has consequences was a lesson they'd both been trying to teach him. Sometimes it made him want to scream and tell _him_ that he knew very well the consequences. He felt the bruises and aches across his bones from the various pains of experiments. He knew what he could've stopped by just letting _him_.. die? 

But no. He couldn't scream and shout and he couldn't let up, even for a moment. He was what his brother depended on. 

_nah, bro. you're the brightest thing down here._

A memory from another time. When, despite what _he_ had tried to make him do-- don't think about it, don't think about it, DON'T-- he'd still had his brother. He'd still had someone to back him up and hug him when everything was dark. When the light he'd hold deep inside of him and think about whenever he grew sad was fading, his brother would relight it. 

But now?

He just looked up towards the ceiling and tried to clear his mind. Easier said then done. All the thoughts were bouncing around, repeating, until he felt like he was going to scream. He couldn't scream. He had to. 

Eventually it started to slow and his breath grew shallow, despite the fact that every time he thought about anything, he grew even more awake. His tears dried and he fell into the faint, white, cloud of sleep. 

\----but it wasn't white.

This dream was colorful. It was warm and cozy. It was out. It was red and orange with heat around him. This dream wasn't like what his brother described and what he occasionally felt himself. Not that gold and orange. A different shade. There were no long hall and there was no dust scattering across the ground. He didn't see a knife and he didn't see a gloved hand. 

This dream was not just warm. It was hot. It was puzzles with heating vents. It was looking out a-- window. And then this dream was turning around to see his brother smiling at him. A genuine smile and not a forced grimace. 

"whatcha wearing, bro?" asked his brother. 

 

"I COULD ASK THE SAME THING!" he exclaimed. The brother who was green was not wearing his faint greenish blue clothes that _he_ had given them. It was... that color was blue, but it wasn't faded. Every color here was vibrant. It wasn't miserable. There was no scent of despair and fear-- instead, what was that smell? He didn't recognize it. It smelled... good. He remembered-- _he_ had once given them something he'd called 'butterscotch candy.' It smelled similar to this. 

"this is a dream, i'm guessing."

"HUH?" His dreams didn't usually acknowledge it was a dream. His dreams felt too real. While, despite the vibrant colors and scents, this still was a dream. He knew that very well. So... "THIS IS NEW."

The brother looked at his hands suspiciously. "how're your plates staying on? this's a weird dream."

He was acting strange. How did brother not know that they-- they were-- 

 

He didn't like thinking about that. He tried to avoid thinking about the things that made him go back into moments that hurt. That was the moment where everything got worse. Everything got so much worse after that. Like _he_ had made a choice-- the wrong choice. And maybe it could've been different. 

He reached for his brother's hand, then paused. His brother out of the dream wasn't talking to him. He didn't want to make a mistake that could lead in dream brother to stop talking to him. 

"CAN I?" he asked, gesturing to his hand in his pocket. Brother held out the hand. It was wrapped in... bandages. He slowly unwrapped them, but his brother pulled his hand back when he tried. 

 

"hey, don't do that. i know it's a dream, but gaster doesn't like it when we take them off. remember? think he's scared of losing us, y'know?"

That made no sense... who was Gaster? And how could he take the plates off? He held out his own hand in comparison to his brother's. 

Brother gasped. 

 

"what happened to your hand, bro? who did that?" That was even more confusing. Of course, _he_ was the one who did it. He didn't quite have an exact name for _him_ , but he knew _he_ must have a name. _He_ had something that was supposedly called a name tag. He wasn't quite sure what a name tag was, so he'd asked. Monsters had names, things had designations. 

He'd asked if he and his brother had a name after that. 

That didn't end well. Another round of being told he was not a monster. That he was just a tool. It was dull to hear again and again... but it also sunk in. 

 

He was getting distracted. What was brother asking again? Oh... right. Who had done that to him? Who had drilled those plates in or... what? It wasn't like this brother didn't have plates-- that was implied through how this "Gaster" got upset when he took them off. But... how could they be taken off... or were this version of his brother... 

He didn't even manage to fully finish a sentence before he realized what his brother meant. He had plates that were removable under the bandaids. The drills-- the agony-- none of it was necessary. He expected to cry again. Always the crybaby, huh? That's what _he_ might say. _He_ wasn't there at the moment, but that didn't mean that he didn't feel the presence of someone watching him. Instead of tears, he just shuddered. His bones rattled.

 

"YOU MEAN... WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HANDPLATES, BROTHER?" 

"uh, bro, they're right here. what's gotten into you in this dream?" His brother finished unwrapping the bandaids and he saw that this brother also had plates. But instead of saying _WDG_ and _1-S,_ they read... 

_comic sans_

_WD. Gaster_

W.D...G? The same initials as on his plates. Gaster. The Gaster that he'd mentioned... was the one whose initials were on his plates? But that didn't explain the 'comic sans.' 

 

"WHAT'S A COMIC SANS? WHO'S GASTER?"

"bro... i don't think this dream's in the right timeline." Always the expert with the scientific mumbo jumbo, hm? Well, this time, he actually knew what his brother meant. That somehow, he was talking about an alternative reality. A different one than the usual view they got in dreams? 

"I DON'T THINK SO EITHER," he agreed. "IT'S NOT THE NORMAL DREAM EITHER."

"this isn't the one with--" 

"THE WHITE MIST AND THE PURPLE AND BLUE?" 

"and the gold and orange for me?"

 

This was somewhat eerie. They were different... but the same. They both had the plates on their hands, but one was personalized and had _names._ They both had dreams. They both recognized each other. 

 

"HOW DID YOU GET TO THE SURFACE?" he finally asked. 

"bro, this isn't the surface," he laughed, in a confused way. "what timeline did you come from?"

 

This wasn't the surface? But why was it so open? Why was it so warm and green around here? _He_ always talked about reaching the surface and how it would help something called 'Asgore' when _he_ thought he wasn't listening. He was actually quite clever at times. It sometimes helped to be underestimated. Sometimes. Other times it hurt. 

"IT'S NOT? WHERE IS _HIM_?" he asked. He was puzzled by the whole situation. 

"who's him?" brother asked. 

"YOU KNOW!" Something wasn't adding up. A different timeline, most definitely, but one where-- it had to have split somewhere. Some big change that led to _this_. It didn't seem like the future, because they were the normal heights. "THE..." He shook at memories and his brother reached over to comfort him. 

"calm, it'll be okay, paps." 

"THE DRILLS. DON'T YOU REMEMBER? DON'T YOU REMEMBER THE LASERS? ALL THE EXPERIMENTS?" He was getting desperate telling him, trying to get his own brother back. So he took a risk and thought about _it_. "WHEN WE FIGURED OUT BLUE MAGIC AND-- AND-- AND THEN--" he shook and his bones rattled. His eyes flared purple from fear of the memory. The haunted look in brother's eyes. 

He was hardly awake for most of it, the pain had jaunted him into a daze. But he still felt the pain. He'd felt the searing agony and dust scattering from where his bones split. He'd seen the contortions in his wrist that weren't supposed to go that way. How his fingers were on the wrong way around... how he knew that it just wasn't supposed to be like this. A sense of wrongness. 

It'd taken a while to not have flashbacks every time he even saw the color blue. Even know, blue magic made him go straight into a memory. Especially on him. His brother felt the same way,he knew, but it was different. It was different because his brother wasn't the one who'd felt it. He knew brother always felt guilty he couldn't take some of the pain, but in a way, he was glad that his brother did not have to deal with the pain. 

He grew strong for him.

 

"whoa, whoa," said brother as he glowed his eyes-- eyes... both eyes worked in this timeline. "you okay?"

"YEAH. JUST... MEMORIES." 

"what happened in your timeline? was it... oh no. you can't be from _that_ timeline."

"WHAT ONE?" he asked, finally regaining a feeling of presence. He knew it was all fake, that this was just a dream. But it was the most real feeling dream he'd had in a while. 

"gaster says that there's a timeline out there where he didn't chose mercy when deciding to give us the plates and--"

 

.

.

.

It took a few moments for that to sink in properly. Gaster was _him_. That was _his_ name. The name _he'd_ never told them. A conversation he'd almost forgotten-- a time before the handplates-- came to him suddenly. 

_  
"YOU HAVE A NAME?"_

_"Yes, I do, but I don't want you knowing it."_

_✂︎✡︎♏︎⬧︎_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT:  
> UGH! The last bit of this chapter got deleted! Again! I'm seeing a consistent problem here. Sigh. For the next Chapter I'll cut to a different POV and finish this section later.


	3. Chapter 2- Mercyplates Papyrus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The glitches were probably caused by my use of wingdings, so I'll chill on using them.
> 
> EDIT: Yup, itw as the WingDings. No more Wingdings.

Papyrus watched his brother sleep in their shared bedroom. He, of course, slept rarely if at all. But Sans was quite a lazybones! Always napping. If Papyrus was being honest with himself, he did not like seeing what he usually saw when he slept. He wondered why Sans did not seem to care about what he saw. 

...No, that was wrong. Sans did care about what he saw, that's why Papyrus had to wake him so often. Once he'd said something like, the only way I can stop being afraid is if I face it. Except he'd said it in his usual lazy way! It was probably something Gaster had said to him. Papyrus often wondered if Gaster had said that because he'd do the same thing. 

Papyrus yawned. Perhaps he would have a small power nap. Thinking about Sans's habits was infectious. He leaned back in his bed, taking his scarf off. He made sure to hang it up carefully. Sans was so lazy he would sleep in his coat! He would sleep anywhere. Once Papyrus had to keep him from falling asleep on top of Undyne's rock! She got irritated by Sans for some reason... his brother had a special talent for irritating people!

 

His thoughts drifted to his friend. Undyne was five or so years older than the two of them and spent a lot of time hanging out with her even older friend, Alphys, but she hung out with Papyrus anyway. She was cool like that. Papyrus really wanted to be as cool as Undyne. Of course he was already cool, as Sans and Gaster would reassure him, but Undyne was even cooler! 

Papyrus tightly closed his hands around a pillow in the warm bed. For some reason, he felt anxious at the thought of Gaster. That made no sense-- Gaster was awesome. He yawned again. Perhaps he had been awake for too long. A power rest would clear all of this up. Perhaps Sans was right with his frequent sleeping habits. 

 

As his eyes closed, they opened again. That made no sense, but that was the only way he could find to describe the sensation. He was dreaming, but he didn't remember this dream. He looked around for the white mist, but everything was dark and grey. The world felt too real to be dream, yet he also knew he was sleeping at the same time. A strange dual presence made him acknowledge this. 

How did he know he was in a dream? He'd never been aware of that before...

"bro?" asked Sans. That Sans that was sitting on the floor across from him, but he wasn't the brother Papyrus knew. He was... but he wasn't. "what..."

He looked... exhausted.

 

Not in the way that Sans always looked when he was awake for too long. Papyrus didn't really know what else to describe it as. He seemed smaller, even though Papyrus knew he was the same height as he'd always been. Sans wore a faint, thin, papery robe. It was like the things that Papyrus had worn when he was really young. Before Gaster had taken them outside and given them the plates. 

 

"SANS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THE FLOOR?" he exclaimed. 

 

Sans looked shocked. 

 

"what? so you're talking to me now?" He said, eventually. His voice was bitter and angry. "i don't know where you got all that, but if he comes back and sees you in it, you'll be in trouble."

 

That second part was added as an after thought. Papyrus looked at his clothes. He wasn't sure what was wrong with it? And what was Sans talking about... talking to me now? Of course Papyrus was talking to him! Where was this dream set, anyway? He stood up and headed towards the empty space in the door. 

 

Blue lights flickered when he drew close. He sensed some sort of aura. More memories from his childhood. Gaster telling him not to touch it. 

 

"what's gotten into you?"

 

"WHAT'S GOTTEN INTO YOU?" Papyrus asked, slightly irritated. "I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU? WHAT? SANS, YOU KNOW THAT'S NOT TRUE! NOW LET ME FIGURE OUT WHERE WE ARE AND WHY YOU'RE DRESSED LIKE THAT!" 

 

"what's sans?" 

 

"YOU! YOU KNOW YOUR NAME IS SANS. JUST LIKE I'M PAPYRUS AND DAD'S GASTER AND UNDYNE'S UNDYNE AND ALPHYS IS--"

 

"wait, what? slow down, bro." Sans came over to Papyrus and looked more closely at him. "you're not from this timeline." 

 

His eyes darkened. 

 

"S o w h a t a r e y o u d o i n g h e r e?"

Papyrus stumbled backwards. Sans never used the black eyes on him! Always on people who were picking on the two of them! Well, mostly when people were picking on Papyrus. Sans didn't get picked on a lot. 

 

"BROTHER?" Papyrus asked, stumbling away. Sans reached out and grabbed him away from the edge of the forcefield. 

 

"you're not my brother. my bro's not here right now. this is a dream."

 

"I KNOW THAT! WHICH IS WHY I'M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHERE I AM!" 

 

Sans looked at Papyrus's hands, and then held out a hand. Papyrus wasn't sure why he was doing that, until he noticed something metal. Something staying there without any sort of bandages around them. They read, "S-1" and "WDG."

Papyrus unwrapped the bandages on his hand and looked at his own plate. It slipped and slid without any sort of attachment. It read, "PAPYRUS. WD Gaster."

 

"papyrus." Sans said, as if he was rolling around the words in his mouth.

 

"YES?"

 

"who's gaster? who's dad?"

 

"IN... IN MY TIMELINE," Papyrus said, the words feeling strange. "HE-- WELL, HE TOOK US OUT OF HERE AND THEN GAVE US THESE!" 

 

"out." 

 

"I'M PRETTY SURE THIS IS THE LAB WHERE WE SPENT OUR CHILDHOOD. SO, YEAH!" 

 

Sans began shaking. 

"i could've been out. if not for you-- him. you. but... he... gaster..he..."

 

"WHATEVER YOUR TIMELINE'S PAPYRUS, I KNOW THAT HE BELIEVES IN YOU. AND I KNOW THAT WHATEVER HE DID, I'M SURE HE'S FEELING SCARED AND ALONE. WITH YOUR HELP, I KNOW HE CAN DO WHATEVER HE WANTS TO." 

 

"damnit, you're always like this." Sans pulled Papyrus to the ground and Papyrus didn't resist. "why do you always have to be so good? no matter what. no matter what, you're still so... kind." 

 

"BECAUSE SOMEBODY NEEDS TO," Papyrus said. 

 

"i wish i could be half as good as you," Sans said.

 

"YOU ARE," Papyrus comforted him. No matter what happened in this timeline to end up this way, Papyrus knew that his brother would always be by his side. And if that meant they had a few minor disagreements along the way, then he would disagree.

"thanks, bro." 

"I THINK, SANS, THAT WHATEVER YOUR PAPYRUS HAS DONE... IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR EVERYONE IF YOU TALKED TO HIM ABOUT IT." 

"it's not like he's done something. i did it. the badness is in me. i'm just like him-- gaster, you said." Papyrus was puzzled about all this talk of him. Gaster wasn't a bad guy. He'd always been there for the two of them, even if it did... sometimes express itself in strange and mysterious ways. Like threatening bullies at school with a drill. Both he and Sans could sometimes get a little bit... over protective. It's like they both knew something Papyrus didn't. It was frustrating at times. But also sweet in its own way.

"BROTHER... WHAT HAS YOUR GASTER DONE?"

 

"hah. where do i even begin?"

 

The laughter was dry and sarcastic. Papyrus didn't know what to think of the way Sans inhaled. Like he was preparing to do something painful. Papyrus wasn't sure if he wanted to know. 

"START AT THE BEGINNING. IT'S A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START!" Papyrus smiled, thinking of the human movie that had made its way underground. He didn't know what deer was, except it was related to singing and does.

 

"drills. does that word mean anything to you?"

 

Sort of. Papyrus didn't know why, but sometimes when Gaster was building things or experimenting, he'd get a strange sense of deja vu and fear. For some reason, he started shaking and felt his eye blaze up purple. He didn't know why. Why. Why. Why.

 

"IT... I DON'T KNOW." 

Memories that weren't his crushed him. 

And one of them blazed bright blue. The color of a soul. Agony. Pain. Air rushing through his bones and bones twisting in uncomfortable patterns. A phantom hurt that he couldn't explain. Gaster hurt... hurt him. 

No! 

"NO! NO!" Papyrus was screaming. His voice was sore from the shouting, he didn't realize it. Gaster wouldn't-- he wouldn't! But the warm feelings that Papyrus felt to his Gaster were being replaced with fear, pain, and above all, a determination to find a different Gaster. 

"breathe, bro." Sans reached out and rested a hand on Papyrus's arm. "breathe."

Papyrus did as Sans said and felt the memories he didn't know recede. 

 

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND." 

 

"when your gaster chose mercy... ours... did not." 

Sans voice was halting and scattered. He was scared.

 

"HE'D TOLD US ABOUT... A TIMELINE. WHERE... THIS WAS A POSSIBILITY," Papyrus eventually admitted. 

"didn't believe it?"

"NO."

"it's true. i guess my bro-- papyrus-- he was right after all. gaster can be merciful. i don't even know whether to be relieved or just disappointed." 

"YOU'VE GOT TO KEEP TRYING. STAY KIND," Papyrus said and wrapped his arms around Sans. A foreign and yet also so familiar gesture to both of them. "BECAUSE IF ONE MERCY TIMELINE EXISTS, THEN THERE'S GOT TO BE MORE. I PROMISE. HE CAN DO BETTER." Sans's smile this entire time was wry and sarcastic. but this time, Papyrus thought he'd seen a glimmer of true smiles in there.

 

"no matter what, it's always you, isn't it?"

 

"WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE?"

A laugh rang true for a moment and that was when Papyrus felt the strange tug of a dream dying. 

 

He'd almost forgotten this was a dream. 

"WAIT, I DON'T WANT TO GO!" he screamed and grabbed at Sans. "I DON'T WANT TO WAKE UP." 

 

"please don't go!" Sans grabbed at Papyrus too, but Papyrus felt himself turning to mist. His body was just a reflection of his mind. He was not in that timeline and could not save him. He couldn't bring Sans to freedom and he couldn't fix their Gaster.

"STAY DETERMINED!" was all Papyrus had managed to scream before being brutally torn away from his brother and into the waking world.


	4. Handplates Sans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: This chapter includes Gaster acting directly abusive to the skelebros as opposed to in memories. This may be upsetting for some readers. Proceed with caution.

He woke up to the sound of soft sobs.

He didn't often remember all of his dreams so perfectly. Most of them were vague and fuzzy.

But this one was clear.

This one was different. It wasn't supposed to even be possible. He-- Sans-- he knew that. 

_Sans._

For all the talk from _him_ about Sans being expendable, expendable "it's" did not have names. That much Sans had known from the start.

Gaster... Papyrus had known from the start somethings as well. That he could be merciful. That mercy was even a tangible concept in... this. Whatever this was. Papyrus must have been right all along. What was so different in that timeline? What had caused the change?

Sans didn't realize he'd started crying along to Papyrus's sobs until he looked at his hands. They were trembling. His entire set of bones was rattling. 

"hey," Sans said out loud to bro. 

Papyrus turned to look at him. He looked like he was holding onto the metal bars with all his might. That wasn't very much. In the sallow light of the time before Gaster came, his slender bones were even more prominent. He looked so fragile with only the pale blue forcefield illuminating him.

"so," he said, continuing his train of thought before he lost his courage. "i guess... i'm sorry." Papyrus looked at him. His eyes glowed an almost white pink with tinges of purple.

then he realized the shakiness wasn't in papyrus but in himself.

"WHY? BROTHER-- SANS."

"you had the same dream didn't you?" Sans already suspected that. Papyrus didn't usually cry from his dreams. Unless he was reliving one of Those Memories.

"WHERE YOU WERE DIFFERENT AND _HE_ WAS KIND. WHERE WE LIVED OUTSIDE OF HERE AND THERE WAS SMELLS OF... GREEN."

Green was a color not rarely seen around here. But they both knew he meant the feelings they'd never had a name for. The rush when one of them was okay, or Gaster had a moment of mercy. The widening and genuineness of Sans's expression. A smile of encouragement or a warm embrace. That was when traces of green snuck into their features.

"my dream was... we were here. but it was a different you. a green you. he didn't know anything about him being cruel. he called him... Gaster. and he called him Dad."

 

"HE WAS KIND."

"you-- the other Papyrus, that's what you're named, i guess-- you told me to keep trying. that if there's one mercy him, there's more."

Papyrus wordlessly walked over and embraced him. For a moment, Sans thought he might be glowing green in his one eye,

And that was when the lights turned on.

One at a time. 

One

Then

Another.

And Gaster was there now. He seemed particularity energized. Perhaps he'd made another 'breakthrough' that led to even more painful tests. He'd stopped only for a moment by the two of them before rushing forward.

Papyrus breathed a sigh of belief into Sans's chest. 

"WHAT IF YOU WERE RIGHT?" Papyrus asked. 

"what's that supposed to mean?" He asked with a dry laugh. 

"IN THEIR TIMELINE... GASTER HAD STOPPED BEFORE THE PLATES. WHAT IF HE'S... WHAT IF HE CAN'T GO BACK? "

Sans shivered almost unconsciously. He didn't want his bro to lose his good nature, even if sometimes it felt like he did. It was what kept him grounded. Kept him sane, more like it.

This fight was the worst he'd ever had. It left him feeling empty and drained inside. He barely had the energy to shuffle from place to place.

He hadn't realized how much Papyrus's optimism kept him going. The steadfast belief that Gaster could show mercy might not be something Sans could believe in, but he knew he could always believe in his brother. He was green in this world devoid of anything but purple fear. 

"no," he said. He turned to look at Papyrus, straight on. "bro, you can't give up. you're the only good thing about this place."

"BRAVERY IS ANOTHER WORD FOR STUPIDITY," Papyrus said softly. 

"don't quote him. you're too good for that. trust me." 

Trust. What did Sans know about trust? Where did he even learn that word? Like he would ever deserve to be trusted. Like either of them deserved this. He let out a dry laugh.

"i need you."

Papyrus glowed orange in his two eyes. Sans glowed his one eye blue in response.

"I NEED YOU," Papyrus replied. His voice grew stronger.

"i need you."

"YOU ARE NECESSARY." 

"you're smart."

"YOU ARE MORE THAN A TOOL." 

"mercy isn't a weakness." Sans didn't know if he believed that. It wasn't like the damage from Papyrus healing Gaster could be undone. But again... Sans was the reason Papyrus had been put into that situation.

Papyrus had gotten the physical traits from Gaster. Sans had gotten the mental traits. 

Gaster had once described a black hole. On the surface, above outside, there were stars. They shone brightly, giving life to planets surrounding them. One star, the Sun, was the reason humans and monsters could live on the surface. 

That was Papyrus. A star.

A black hole was the opposite of a star. It was blacker than the nothing Sans felt when half of his face burst open. It was negative space. It pulled everything into it, including light. There was something called the Event Horizon -- if you got too close, it was impossible to escape.

The point of no return. Sans had passed that when he'd tried to kill Gaster. Now he was desperately trying to escape Gaster's black hole, but it was too late. He was already sucked in. Or maybe he'd always been a black hole.

"THANK YOU."

Don't thank me, was what Sans wanted to say. But instead he just held Papyrus and Papyrus held him. 

"you're a star, you really are."

"IF I'M A STAR, THEN YOU MUST BE A PLANET." 

That's a thought. A planet orbiting Papyrus's warmth. Absorbing his glory and using it to survive. Beautiful in its own right. Supporting love and life. Love and not L.O.V.E..

But that couldn't be true, because after the Incident, Gaster had run some tests. He'd said... 

Sans was Level of Violence Two. 

He could never go back to how he'd used to be. A level of detachment he couldn't fight. He didn't tell Papyrus about that. Instead, he just smiled. Like he always did.

"sure thing, bro." He'd try not to pull Papyrus into the void of space. The empty feeling inside of him would stay his own. He couldn't let Papyrus know, because then Papyrus would want to help. If Papyrus wanted to help, then... Sans couldn't quite put a skeletal finger on why that would be bad. He just knew he didn't want to hurt Papyrus by letting him now. 

The lights flickered for a moment. Sans whimsically wondered if his emotions had caused that. Hah, how ridiculous would that be. The energy had been flickering on and off recently.

Actually, it hadn't been a recent thing. Sans thought back to the events he used as markers of time. He knew it'd started happening a bit earlier than when his face exploded. That was... what? He didn't know.

He should keep better track of these things, but it was hard. The lights went on and off at different times. He'd stay for longer. Sans had tried measuring once, but lost track.

The lights suddenly flared back to full strength. Papyrus winced at the sudden glare in his eyes. Sans looked away. Probably Gaster was tinkering with something.

He always was. Usually that something was one of them.

Eventually they weren't alone anymore. Gaster came back through, muttering about alterations in a cross dimensional current and measurements. 

He must've been too distracted earlier to even give them a second glance. Gaster's voice cut off when he noticed.

He adjusted his glasses. 

"Hm. Intriguing." 

"you know what's intriguing?" Sans said.

"I don't care." Gaster placed his hand on the hand sensor. 

"WHAT'S INTRIGUING, SA--BROTHER?" Gaster flicked his head towards Papyrus at the slip up. Sans swore internally. They should've talked about this before it was too late. Whatever. It was too late. The last two times they'd tried keeping secrets from Gaster, it'd just ended up with more pain. Sans had wondered if telling Gaster would have prevented the pain he'd demonstrated to prove the point more times than he could count.

"say whatever," Sans shrugged, gesturing at Gaster. "he'd figure it out eventually." 

"1-S, what are you referring to?" 

"WE DO HAVE NAMES, DON'T WE?" Papyrus asked. 

"No. Things do not have names." Sans snorted. That old line. Even if the dreams weren't real, they could be. The names worked. 

"well, that must be why you don't have one." 

"This is irrelevant." Of course it was. Nothing was relevant to Gaster. Except for pain and point proving.

"IS IT, GASTER?" Sans could almost burst into hysterical laughter. That was just a perfect moment for Papyrus to interject. It was like the two of them were made for this. Positioning him into a place where they could both be... big.

The satisfaction lasted for a moment. Gaster's face turned surprised for a single moment and then he walked into the cell. Sans didn't even bother trying again. Papyrus would just heal him even if Gaster was careless again.

"2-P, you're coming with me." His face was emotionless. As always. Did he even feel anything? Was his "level of violence" too high to feel remorse?

"Can my brother come too?" Sans wanted to tell him not to be too optimistic. The strange dreams could just be dreams.

"Would you prefer that, 2-P?"

"wait, paps." Somehow, the nickname slid out easily. Too easily. "this might be a trick." Papyrus looked back at Sans and to Gaster again.

"I'M SURE IT'S NOT!" Sans flinched. He wasn't sure this was going to be good at all. Papyrus reached for Gaster's hand. Gaster slapped Papyrus's fingers away. Hard. One bone fractured straight down the middle and Papyrus flinched. He didn't cry out.

"That damage was unnecessary." Gaster's voice had no indication he felt anything about the damage. Sans reached to heal Papyrus's finger. "S-1, you are not to heal P-2's finger until it returns to the cell." 

Papyrus smiled encouragingly. "IT'S ALRIGHT, BROTHER! IT'S NOT THAT BAD!" Sans remembered a time before the plates where it was just tests and puzzles-- When the idea of Gaster fracturing bones on purpose was shocking. Now he didn't even feel anything. 

"so am i staying here or what?" Sans mumbled a word Gaster'd only say when extremely frustrated at someone or something. 

"You're coming too, since it appears that you too have been affected by the Anomaly." 

Anomaly. Abnormality. It was a good word for whatever the hell had happened. But did Gaster also have an experience with this... Anomaly? Or was he just referring to something that was picked up on one of his fancy devices.

It didn't matter.

Every step made a sound. His bones colliding with the ground echoed throughout the hallway. Papyrus and Sans walked together. It wasn’t fair that they were at his lack of mercy. None of this was fair. Hah. Did he even know what fair was? 

“Now,” he said as he led them into another room. “Tell me exactly what occurred in your dreams.”


	5. Mercyplates Sans

He woke up to screaming. 

That wasn't surprising. 

What was surprising was the identity of the screamer. San was usually the one who ended up screaming or crying until Papyrus ran to his side. This time, Sans woke up relatively calmly. The dream hadn't ended in death. Just in the other Papyrus's crying. Which in and of itself was sad, but it wasn't anything unusual. Sans had plenty of dreams where a different Papyrus was crying in a familiar gold and orange color.

Sans breathed in a quick gasp of air, even though he didn't really need to breathe at all. More of a habit than any sort of necessity. 

"bro?" Sans asked as he walked over to Paps's bed. He was hugging tightly to a plushy that Undyne had given him. It was a really sweet gesture, even if it was slightly falling apart at the seems and slightly violent. Undyne was _really_ bad at making things. Paps was really lucky the older monster had taken him under her wing.

"SANS!" Paps exclaimed and grabbed his arms around Sans. "I JUST HAD THE MOST HORRIBLE DREAM!" 

"whoa, easy there, human." 

"HAH!" Papyrus giggled. "I'M NOT THAT SCARY! I AM THE GREAT AND MAJESTICAL PAPYRUS!" 

"i know, bro. don't think majestical's a word, though." For monsters without noses, Papyrus did a pretty good impression of a snort. Sans tugged at the red scarf around his neck, straightening it. He wondered why Paps was sleeping. Whatever. It probably didn't matter. Maybe he just wanted to see what all of Sans's fuss was about. Or perhaps it was another of his 'power naps.'

"YOU ARE BEING VERY SILLY!" Paps exclaimed. 

"you know it, bro." 

 

Papyrus stretched his bones and reached for the light switch. The room's lights didn't turn on for a few seconds and then they flared too bright. Sans flinched and looked away. The lights then shut off again, frustratingly. Papyrus exaggerated his irritation into a rant for a few minutes. As he was prone to. Sans knew Papyrus didn't actually get that irritated with the little things like that. It was fun for him. Sans played along. Sometimes it felt like only half of their interactions were actually sincere. 

"WATT is going on these days?" Sans asked, winking with his good eye at Papyrus. It was something most people didn't know-- he was blind in one eye. He usually winked with his bad eye. He only used his good eye around people he trusted-- Gaster, Papyrus, and sometimes Undyne with her dorky friend Alphys. The dork club, basically. He was the BEST on anime nights. What a shame that Papyrus wasn't into anime like the four of them. 

 

"I SWEAR, YOUR PUNS GET WORSE BY THE DAY!" 

"well, could you ILLUMINATE the situation a bit more?" Sans quickly dashed over to the drum set in the corner of the room which Gaster had taught him how to use if only for this purpose. He slid behind it, grabbed his drum sticks and then--

Badumph!

"SANS, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TO STOP PLAGUING MY LIFE WITH INCIDENTAL MUSIC?" That reaction. Every. Single. Time. It was so worth it. Despite Papyrus's act, he actually did love Sans's jokes. Sans knew him well enough to tell the difference between fun, faked, anger and serious irritation. 

"clearly not enough." 

 

Papyrus looked around the room for something. Sans walked out from behind the bed and bowed when Paps wasn't looking. He leaned back onto his bed and felt the warmth from the window above it. He breathed in and out. The two were clearly avoiding the subject of their dreams. Sans knew Papyrus wasn't ready to talk yet, but he wondered when he would be. The news about another timeline... a 'Fightplates' timeline, so to speak, it was disturbing to say the least. He suspected Papyrus had a similar interaction with the Sans. That would only make sense. On a dimensional sense, according to Gaster, the two were paired in every single way. He wasn't sure why. 

 

"papyrus..." That got his attention. Sans rarely called him by his full name to his face. Either 'Paps' or 'bro.' Papyrus was for talking to other people. "why did you wake up screaming?"

Papyrus closed his eyes for a moment. (Somehow. Sans couldn't figure out how they COULD, because they didn't quite have eyelids). He held out his hand to his face-- the hand with the plate tied around it. Sans reached for his hand, but ended up softly holding his wrist instead. Steadying him. Sans didn't want to have to be Paps's rock, but he needed him to be. 

 

"I HAD A DREAM." 

"white or gold?" he asked. It was like they were just so _used_ to it. Like it was normal to wake up crying and screaming every other night. Sans had gotten dull after dreaming so much, but Paps didn't sleep a lot. So when he did, it was especially bad. "cause i had this dream that wasn't either and i'm not quite sure what to think of it."

"ALSO NEITHER," Papyrus said. "IT WAS... DARK GREEN AND BLUE. BUT NOT A HAPPY GREEN. IT WAS DARK GREY AND BLACK. YOU WERE SCARED. AND-- AND--" Sans wrapped an arm around Papyrus's body and embraced him. He let go a moment later, but it was the thought that mattered. Papyrus needed to feel solidified in the moment, otherwise he'd panic and fall into memories that weren't his. Or ones that were. Sans wasn't quite sure what made Paps prone to flashbacks, but it was definitely real. 

 

"i had a different dream too," Sans said. "maybe i should go first?"

 

"THAT'S-- THAT WOULD BE NICE, BROTHER." 

"you were sitting on the window seat downstairs, overlooking the lava lakes. but it was a smaller you-- i mean, not physically, but--" Papyrus nodded. They both pretty much knew what the other was trying to imply, the vast majority of the time. It was strange. Alphys said that in a lot of animes, twins usually had some sort of special emotional connection and telepathy, while Gaster said it was probably connected to their shared souls. Alphys also backed that up after a sheepish backtrack. 

 

Dorks. Once Papyrus had set up a prank where she was locked in a room alone with a copy of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 and a note saying it was the best game ever for a half hour. After he unlocked the door, there was no note. Or Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2. They were both shredded into a million pieces. 

 

That was a sidenote. 

 

"YEAH," Paps said. 

"well, you were really scared. very purple in general, _tibia_ honest." Papyrus groaned. Sans smiled. "anyway, you had these plates? like ours, but--" Papyrus shuddered and unwrapped the bandages unconsciously. Then he wrapped them again. Then unwrapped. Again and again. Sans placed a finger on Papyrus's hand and he stopped. "drilled." The word drilled made both of them shiver and faint purple glimmer rose through their eye sockets. 

"I SAW THAT TOO. BUT INSTEAD OF A DIFFERENT ME, I SAW A DIFFERENT YOU. AND WE WERE IN THE LAB." The lab. Of course. That made sense. Gaster occasionally brought them down there from time to time, when he wanted to show them something cool. Well, it was usually Sans who he brought. Sans actually hung out there sometimes. There was so much cool science stuff. The equipment-- well, Sans didn't need to get too obsessive over how awesome his Dadster was. Hah! Dadster-- that was pretty clever. He should call Gaster that. He'd get a kick out of it, that dork. 

 

"like, THE lab?" Sans asked. "the not-so-secret-secret-lab." 

"PROBABLY. I DON'T OBSESS OVER IT LIKE A NERD."

"you spend too much time with undyne. but yeah." 

"EXCEPT WE HADN'T MADE THE PLACE LESS GLOOMY."

"i was not responsible for that mess," Sans laughed. "it didn't need bright pink lightbulbs. or streamers. seriously, what were you thinking?"

"ADMIT IT, YOU LIKE IT THERE. WHY ELSE WOULD YOU HANG OUT THERE SO MUCH?" 

"i dunno, science experiments?" Sans let out a chuckle, then realized. They were derailing. That was what they always did when they were talking about stuff like this. It was like they didn't really want to talk about their dreams. Which was pretty accurate. "but... you were scared, right?" Papyrus let out a breath and sobered up. 

"YEAH, YOU WERE... ANGRY. SAD. YOU'D USED THE BLACK EYES." Sans's eye sockets went black for a single moment and then he put his pupils back. Papyrus shivered. "JUST LIKE THAT. BUT NOT AS A JOKE. ON PURPOSE. YOU... SCARED ME." 

"i'm sorry bro. it sounds awful. if i meet an alternate version of myself, i'm shaking some sense into him. sh, don't tell them i said that." Papyrus smiled shakily at the joke that wasn't really a good joke. 

"HE SAID... GASTER HAD DONE A BAD THING. A LOT OF BAD THINGS. HE'D DONE A LOT OF VIOLENCES. AND SAID IT WAS TOO LATE FOR HIM TO GO BACK. BUT... I DON'T THINK THAT'S TRUE. IT CAN'T BE. NOT DAD."

 

The lights flickered back on, finally. Sans sighed and rested his head in Papyrus's lap. 

 

"he told me once," Sans said, looking at the ceiling. It was a star map. Plundered from several different places and combined to look like the universe was ever shifting above their heads. Just like on the surface. Even though they were trapped underground by humans, Sans had never felt like he was stuck. He'd always felt like the only universe he'd ever need was his friends and family. 

Now he felt stuck. 

"TOLD YOU WHAT?"

Stuck in the middle of timelines. Stuck in a single world. And stuck without understanding. Sans was always driven to answers. It was just something about him. He couldn't handle not knowing, even if it meant sticking his non-existent nose in places it wasn't supposed to be. Despite his constant search, the answers always evaded him. One fat learned let to another question. Another hypothesis. Another test. And that just lead to confusion. He'd go in circles and circles. Stuck. 

And what even was he looking for? 

"he told me that at one point, he'd made a choice with us. he says he made the right one. but out there? there's still a him and an us that made the wrong decision. And maybe that's what you saw. we saw. gaster i mean, not the alternate us'es."

"THAT MAKES SENSE WITH WHAT HE'S SAID TO ME AS WELL. BUT... WHY? WHAT MAKES US SO DIFFERENT?" 

"luck. guess we won the demented coin toss of destiny, huh?" He laughed, but it sounded hollow. Even to him. 

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY." 

 

"i know."

It wasn't fair. What made him better than the other Sans? Paps didn't even know his own name. Like he was just a thing to their version of Gaster. Did Dad even love them? Obviously not. Otherwise he wouldn't flinch when Sans moved too quickly and when he winked his bad eye. Dad had once laughed and said that with one eye closed, Sans and Papyrus were splitting images of him. 

 

"WHAT TIME IS IT, SANS?" Papyrus asked, suddenly. As if he didn't want to talk about it anymore. Well, Sans was perfectly happy with that. He shrugged and looked at the clock. It was pretty early, but he was pretty sure he heard Gaster already shambling about downstairs. Maybe they could catch him before he ran off to do Important Science Stuff at the Core. 

It wasn't like he was a bad dad-- he was great. He was just busy. The most frustrating thing about him was his refusal to bring Sans with him to the Core. It wasn't like there wasn't five hundred and fifty safety measures. It was surprising anyone got anything done with the way he kept Dading everyone. Well, at least King Dad of the Entire Underground Asgore wasn't in charge of safety. With their paranoia combined, it would be impressive if they managed to finish the safeguards of safeguards of safeguards with the intension of safeguarding the safeguard.

"i think our dadster should probably know about this." Papyrus glared at him for just a single moment at the pun. 

 

Papyrus sprinted out and down the hall. Sans walked, following him before Papyrus grabbed his hand and pulled him into a run. "whoa!" he exclaimed. The hallway passed by in a blur of orange and blue designs. Sans didn't know who made the house but it was certainly pretty cool. He liked examining every crack for secrets and usually took the walk downstairs at a slow, lazy, walk. Unless Papyrus was 'helping him.'

"GET OFF YOUR LAZYBONE BUTT!" he told him. He quickly turned the corner and Sans nearly went flying as they stumbled down the stairs. Sans laughed at Papyrus's antics. Before they crashed into the ground, they felt their hearts go blue and be slowly lowered to the grown.

 

"Dad Gaster!" Papyrus exclaimed. Gaster looked stressed in his white sweatshirt. He was holding one of his mugs. This one said 'Aperture Science: We do what we must, because we can.' It had the image of a cube with a heart on it. And the logo of something called a valve. Alphys had found it in the dump-- it was her gift to him last year on his birthday. Actually, a lot of Gaster's cool stuff came from Alphys. They were pretty close friends. 

 

"Careful," he said, signing even though the two of them could understand his words fine. 

"thanks dadster," Sans said, trying out the term. Gaster chuckled at that, then cut off the laughter as he began a serious statement. 

"I heard you two chattering up there all morning. If my calculations are correct, there are high odds of an Anomaly having occurred that may have affected a large portion of the Underground. Have you been having any odd dreams lately? Other than the usual nightmares."

""yeah, actually," Sans said. "they, uh... well, this is gonna be awkward." Papyrus's bones rattled out of fear of a memory. 

"Perhaps we should discuss it over breakfast. What would you like?" Papyrus relaxed, visibly. Despite the abject terror their dreams had instilled in the both of them, this Gaster was still theirs. "Or should we try breakfast at New Home? I am sure Asgore would not mind the company." 

"YES, YES, YES!" Papyrus exclaimed. "YES, PLEASE!" 

"calm down, bro," Sans said. "we all know you love Asgore's cooking more than anything else in the world."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN HIS COOKING. I LOVE GASTER MORE THAN HIS COOKING! UH, ASGORE'S COOKING. NOT DAD'S." 

"It's alright," Dadster said, chuckling. "We all know that my cooking is quite atrocious." Papyrus scrambled out towards the door. "Wait, one moment, P-- Papyrus." Sans narrowed his pupils suspiciously at Gaster's slip. What was he going to say?

Wow, Sans was paranoid. 

"ALRIGHT!" Papyrus stopped exactly where he was. Gaster took a last sip of his coffee-- at least, that was what Sans assumed it was. He was prone to drink tea on occasion, but that was usually only at Asgore's. Oh, right! He was going to have tea again. Gaster was a pain about caffeine, but he didn't want to be rude to Asgore. It was rather hypocritical because Sans knew Gaster had about five hundred different unhealthy habits of his own. Which he'd learned after an inquisition into what cigarettes were. Actually, Gaster hadn't been smoking as much lately, which was a nice change. 

Gaster put his mug down on the table and headed to the door. Sans followed and as he opened the door, the lights shuddered again. 

 

"you really need to do something about that," Sans said. Gaster looked at him for a moment and Sans thought he might've flickered purple for a single second. He breathed in a quick breath and then everything went back to normal. Sans wondered what _that_ was about. Probably nothing. He tried to put it out of his mind and failed. "the lights in our room were having some trouble."

"Alphys and the rest of the team are working on it. Currently, this new Anomaly requires my attention." His words were stiff and made Sans feel... strange.

 

Gaster closed the door behind them, probably harder than he intended to. Inside, the mug fell off of the table and shattered on the ground.


	6. Handplates Gaster (Several Hours Earlier)

Several hours ago...  
The clock was glowing a faint green outline. The time was displayed with flickering hesitancy.   
_1:03 AM_  
So much work to do. 

W.D. Gaster, Royal Scientist, and creator of the Core sat in a dark room with the only light in the room coming from the monitor in front of him. He clenched his hands tight and adjusted his position in his chair. It wasn't very comfortable, but he didn't really care about that. He just cared about results and right now, he wasn't getting any. It was frustrating. If he allowed himself to feel anything except numbness and scientific results, of course.

These graphs were making no sense. How could fluctuations in magical energy in the Core go from stable to erratic like that? He couldn't seem to find any patterns. Even if he overlapped the data from the reports of errors electrical distribution across Hotlands-- there wasn't any correlation. Asgore hadn't said anything to him yet, but Gaster knew his old friend well enough to tell that he was concerned about the power outages.

Gaster hadn't told Asgore about the full story. If the changes kept going the way they were, the damage to the Core sustained by incredibly high levels of magical intoxication could be irreversible. The Core didn't just supply electrical energy. Circuits in it were designed to monitor the sustainability of the entire underground. The dangers were incredibly high. 

Gaster's vision glazed over, but he blinked the lack of focus away. He couldn't afford to waste time. If only 1-S and 2-P weren't in the middle of their stupid fight, he could be gathering data from them and using that in his calculations. But no, it wasn't worth investing the time in them at the moment. He _needed_ something that would give him immediate results and that wasn't happening right now. 

It felt like there was a third variable other than the electricity and MP. What was he missing?

Gaster leaned back in his chair, his eyes drifting to a small post it note on the bottom of his computer. _Try turning it off and on again-G_. The simplest solution is often the correct one. A reminder he'd often needed. Sometimes Gaster would over complicate things needlessly. He turned his computer to the camera feed and winded it back to a recent moment where the cameras had gone... strange. It was some form of static, he was sure of it, but not the kind that came from electrical and radioactive interference. 

He went through the footage one frame at a time. 

There!

 

There was a different color there-- not expected from any sort of static interference. It looked like it was a pink party streamer? Gaster opened a fresh document on his computer and started typing up his observation as he flipped from one frame to another. One instance it was there and another it was gone. He marked this as a data point in his overlapping chronology of anomalies.

He felt himself getting sleepy again. Ugh. He stood up and rested his arms on the desk for a moment. Gaster remembered that he hadn't eaten that evening-- too focused on what he thought was a breakthrough. If every time he thought he'd made a breakthrough was actually a breakthrough, he would've shattered that cursed barrier already. But he couldn't even do that yet. 

 

He closed his single eye for a moment and stretched. Gaster knew that he really should head home and maybe sleep a bit. But just a little bit longer couldn't hurt. He reached for his mug-- Aperture Science: We Do What We Must Because We Can-- and sipped the dark, bitter, liquid inside. It was still hot. Good. 

He leaned against the desk a bit, nudging away the folder and placing down the mug. Except Gaster was so tired that he'd put it down wrong and it spilled all over the notes. He leaned his head down, fully intending to pick it up again. But his eyelids flickered and he didn't care about that anymore. His mug rolled off onto the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces. But Gaster couldn't care about that because he was asleep. And asleep skeletons don't care about that sort of thing.

He limply drooped down and dropped into a dream. 

 

Gaster opened his eye in a different lab. 

A different lab? He examined his hands and saw the familiar holes. But something about the surroundings felt slightly off. The texture of the air on his bones was... different. It was an interesting difference, but he needed to realize where he was. Where? No, when. Dreams of reality itself never announced themselves so prominently. Gaster himself had never had a crossdimensional dream, but this was too similar to what S-1 and P-2 had described to each other when the thought he wasn't listening. (He was always listening).

It had to be. But only one circumstance could lead to regular monster souls like his crossing the timeline.

 

Of course, it was the same region and it occupied a shared point on a similar timeline. Gaster was aware of the concept of parallel timelines, but he didn't realize that his universe was part of a pair. He reached for a pen to record this discovery. Then he realized he was looking for a pen to write something down in a dream. Of course that was ridiculous.

Parallel timelines wouldn't work if they were intersecting, even in a dream. Unless the mindscapes were disconnected from the regular timeline like he had hypothesized. It would match up with the conflicting reports that S-1 and P-2 had given. Sometimes they were seeing the future and other times they were seeing this timeline. He needed to cross examine his reports and figure out which was which. 

 

Gaster looked at his surroundings. This part of the lab was large and open. This timeline's Gaster must have fallen asleep here. It seemed unlikely that they would've fallen asleep at the same time in order to synchronize dreams like this-- or was that not accidental? The room had bright orange and pink ribbons traced through it and a balloon or two hanging around. Gaster was skeptical of this version of him's capabilities. Was he in part of his public lab? No, the location had to be within certain parameters. This reminded him of the strange frame he'd seen in the camera footage earlier. 

What was the point of this all? It seemed so completely unnecessary. 

 

This Gaster-- the parallel one-- stood opposite from him. He wasn't wearing his lab coat at all. Instead, he simply wore a white turtleneck. He was facing away from Gaster. This encounter was on his turf. Gaster wondered why that would be. Gaster thought he saw a sticker on the back of his skull. A sticker? He squinted. Sometimes having a distinct lack of depth perception really sucked.

"Hello," said the other Gaster. "I presume this is your timeline." Oh. That would make sense. If both of them were perceiving this encounter as being in the other's timeline, neither of them would have the advantage. This setup was both of their timelines. It this was a moment on both timelines in which there was a gasp in space time-- perhaps the shenanigans occurring with the Core had weakened the fabric of reality. However, was that a logical leap to make? How would electricity cause difference in timelines?   
Of course, the magical part of the circuitry could be affecting that... was paradox space and magical energy connected that way? 

Too many questions and not enough hypothesizes. Questions were vital, obviously, but he needed to make observations for future conclusions to be drawn.

"No," Gaster replied. 

"I see." That timeline of him was presumably coming to the same conclusions. "You obviously know the pressing question that we are both thinking." 

"Yes. What caused the split in timelines?" 

This Gaster turned around and then acted surprised at the crack down his face from when S-1 had attacked him. Perhaps that was the splitting moment, but no. There would not have been enough time between that and now to create such a neat split. 

"More like what the fuck is your idea of scientific integrity?" that Gaster said. Gaster crossed his arms. Of _course_. He had theorized that a mercy parallel existed, but he really was hoping that it wasn't true. He liked to pretend that there was no possibility of him getting swayed from his scientific efforts, but of course that wasn't true. There was the moment. 

The Critical Choice.

 

That was a slightly melodramatic way of putting it. It was simply a moment where he had entertained brief hallucinations and required an extra commitment to his work. However, that was the only time in which a timeline split could have occurred without any other impossible events causing a drastic change. That would explain the strange sticker and the party decorations around the place.

 

"Oh, it's _you_ ," he told him with clear disgust in his voice. "The one who broke the commitment and was happy to let Asgore... the entirety of monster-kind... suffer down here forever." 

"The amount of repulsion I am experiencing at this moment cannot be expressed in words."

"Don't act like you didn't intend for this to happen if you hadn't been overcome in a moment of weakness," Gaster glared, light flaring up in his eye, but then dying down. _No mercy. No forgiveness._ There had been no going back. Yet, this version of him had figured out a way to break that. It was horrific.

"I know. I also know that with willing participation, research has accelerated." 

 

That was a possible outcome of choosing mercy. However, the disadvantages outnumbered the potential willing participation. Besides, it didn't matter any more. No matter what could've happened, it didn't. Not in this timeline. This Gaster had already burned that bridge a long time ago with the more intelligent subject and he had begun to suspect that even the myopic 2-P would not be as willing to participate. Not after it had cost him his fragile relationship with his 'brother.' 

 

"That is highly implausible," Gaster stated instead. The other one took what would have been a deep breath if they weren't skeletons. His eye narrowed and his bones were rattling slightly. This version of him was more inclined to emotional turmoil than Gaster. That would make sense if he had been attempting to heal the soul damage from... that. 

 

Gaster quickly calculated the effects of engaging an encounter with the other him. He would be stronger, if it was true that the other had been attempting to manually lower his LV. However, the emotional recklessness that came at lower LV may have resulted in a heightened ATK. 

 

After he finished analyzing the risks, he concluded it was a worthwhile investment in order to discover more. They must have reached the same result at the exact same time, because they both attempted to initiate a fight at the exact same moment. This resulted in an unlikely event where they both took the first turn simultaneously. It was unusual, but something Gaster had experienced before.

ACT: CHECK->MERCYPLATES GASTER  
*A protective parent.   
ATK 60  
DEF 60

ACT: CHECK -> FIGHTPLATES GASTER  
*Irritated by the interruption.   
ATK 100  
DEF 100

The black and white figure that seemed familiar but different to Gaster glared angrily. His eye lit up in a smoldering black color. Anger. Perhaps he'd seen the shiny new levels of violence that Gaster had kept piling on as he went further into this project. The shared magical energy from the fight made Gaster remember something that wasn't his. A smile and a skeletal hand passing him a tool. 

"So, this is how you wish to proceed," said Gaster. This was just a dream, he knew, but he was still hesitant about engaging himself. Gaster really hoped he wasn't causing any sort of paradox at the moment, because things could get a little messy if that was the case. Mercy Gaster nodded sharply. 'Well." A metaphorical coin toss occurred and decided that Fight Gaster would move first. 

There was not very much light in the room. Gaster was used to the dim. He adjusted his glasses and FOUGHT. 

Bones lunged out of the ground. The intention wasn't to hurt Mercy Gaster as much as drive him backwards. That Gaster stepped back to avoid the wave of bones, but then Gaster raised his hand to shoot forward a series of bones above his head. He moved quicker than Gaster could've anticipated. Still, he twitched his fingers and shot bones from several directions at once. No attacks made contact. That was frustrating. 

After enough time, Gaster let his fingers drop and the attacks stopped coming. He anticipated an ACT from the coward. Sometimes it was good to be surprised, but he wasn't happy about it this time. The other him lunged forward, grabbing Gaster's wrist. Gaster tried to yank it away and kick the Gaster off him, but before he could, he felt his soul turn a deep blue. 

_Fuck,_ he thought. He must've gotten arrogant after the blue magic incident with Pap--P-2. Blue attacks weren't a threat because they were too scared to develop them. But if he was engaging himself, he wouldn't have any sort of limitations like that. Just rage. Lots of it, if Gaster could tell by the dark colors swirling in his eye. 

Gaster was suspended by his soul for a single moment. Then he dropped to the ground, feeling the weight pulling him down. He jumped forward, but he was too slow. Bones caught him from behind. Spots of pain blurred his vision and faint light came out of his eye. But now much. He let the weight of his soul carry him to the ground, quick enough to dodge the bones that were slamming down from above. Gaster waved his own hand and sent a wave of cyan blue bones towards Mercy Gaster. That version deftly sidestepped the cyan bones. 

Gaster crawled quickly out of the maze, jumping to his feet, despite the weight of his soul holding him down. The blue had a limit. If he could put up enough resistance, Mercy Gaster couldn't hold it up for long. He looked down at where he'd ripped his hand away from Mercy Gaster-- it was looking sort of bruised. Ouch. He'd get through it. He shot up a wave of white and blue attacks across the ground. The bones split the floor apart and tiles were going flying. The shattered floor made a hazard filled battleground. 

Mercy Gaster dodged the white ones and let the blue ones wash through him with relative ease. Had Gaster been getting sloppy with his attacks? It was easy to win against the kids--subjects. They were scared of him and everyone knew that fear affected the soul's ability to respond effectively. He needed to practice more with actual opponents. Perhaps Asgore wouldn't mind him taking the opportunity to polish up on his skills. 

That was later. Now he had a problem that shared his name. 

"How long do you expect to keep your experiments up?" Mercy Gaster demanded. 

"Until the barrier is broken," he hissed a response and waved his arm to let a wave of bones cross the room. Mercy Gaster ducked and clambered onto a platform. 

"And then what?" The question was not a surprise. Gaster himself had considered it several times. The subjects could not be allowed to be let loose. They would talk and reveal everything. Gaster could not allow that to happen. Without him on the surface with the rest, the newly built monster society could not possibly succeed. Humans were dangerous. Even the few humans that had already fallen had taken one or two monsters with them. 

And then what was a good question. Gaster felt his concentration slipping and with his concentration, his attack. His bullets faltered, but then he snapped back to attention. They moved quickly again. 

"The project will be terminated," Gaster told him. This was not a statement made of emotional attachment or anger. His tone held no indication of emotion at all. He did not care for the experiments at all, did he? "Along with all life included under that category." 

"You sicken me. They're your children, Wingdings." The use of his first name surprised Gaster. Hadn't heard that for a while. He chuckled. His children. No. They were clones. Tools. Useful tools, but still tools. They were not his children. They were the other Gaster's children, maybe. That was a cowards move. 

"No," Gaster replied. His attacks grew quicker. He squished down any semblance of emotion. He was getting too emotionally involved. His involvement in this entire fight was too close. He didn't hate the other him. It was a version of him who had failed to do what needed to be done. And if Gaster was not careful, he might end up like that. He could not let that happen. 

Finish this. 

This fight had dragged on for too long. The arrogance in the other Gaster's eyes was clear. He thought he was winning. That was unlikely. The entire point of this should have been to collect data on the intersection of parallel timelines. Instead, it had become... whatever this was.

"What are they to you? Sans? Papyrus?" Mercy Gaster asked. He thought he had spotted weakness, perhaps. Gaster stood up strong, shaking off the effects of the blue as if they were nothing. The blue faltered at his refusal to accept it. That was the key in all magic. The placebo effect was the medical term for it. But if a monster only reads about knowing how to do magic and refuses to just do it, then they will inevitably fail. 

When had this become about emotions and less about science. He let go of the magic and walked away. The Mercy Gaster stared at him. Surprise, perhaps. Anger? Disgust? He wasn't sure. Perhaps it was all three at once. This dream was coming to an end. Time had passed. He was going to wake up, whether or not he won this fight. It was useless to finish it for the sake of his ego.

"Subject One S and Subject Two P mean nothing to me," he said as he walked away. "And you would do well to learn that lesson yourself." 

This timeline was a tangent. The contents of it were irrelevant because the events in it were impossible to retrieve. Even if they had meant something to him once... it was not even worth thinking about. He did not love 1-S or 2-P. He would not call them by their names. He would not save them from himself. He did not want to change. He did not want to apologize.

No mercy. No forgiveness. The other monsters would never learn what he had done. When the surface was reached, all liabilities would have to be destroyed. Even the skeletons that might as well be his children in an alternate timeline. For now, the Core's stabilization took priority, but soon... Soon it would be back to work. 

Emotions were a liability. This encounter only solidified his resolve.

**Author's Note:**

> If people like this, I'll add more, including Gaster's reaction to them using names for each other and interactions from the mercyplates end of things. If you've liked this, pleeease check out zarla's amazing comic. It's well worth the read. (zarla-s.tumblr.com/tagged/handplates/chrono)


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